Sara de Waard's novel White Lies ‘deals with mental health issues, trauma, teen romance, substance abuse and family'
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Loading... - Coby Groff
- 26 May 2022
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Sara de Waard’s first novel definitely won’t be her last. In fact, she says, she is already working on it.
de Waard, 45, said she was a screenwriter for almost a decade before trying her first novel, 'White Lies'.
She said the book is “about a 15-year-old girl who suffered a really difficult childhood, some trauma in her past.”
Missy soon meets her first crush and works through it, along with topics such as “mental health issues, trauma, teen romance, substance abuse and dysfunctional families.”
de Waard said 'White Lies' took about a year to write.
“As a single mom, I’m very busy with kids and sports,” she said.
“I used to write when I took my son to western New York for soccer practice. So, I would sit there for hours and hours by myself,” said de Waard, adding “and so I wrote and after that I finished it.”
She said the feedback she has heard from friends and family was great.
“They were telling me that they loved it and that they loved sharing my voice in it. And then I thought, ‘Well, maybe that's just a friend and family kind of thing.’”
“I still love and hate the fact that I need to see some strangers are sharing the same thoughts,” she said.
She then got what any debut novelist could hope for. Her book was deemed one of the 14 young adult books you should read this spring and one of 40 Canadian books recommended by CBC Books.
One review of her book, she said, made her cry.
“It made me cry. I felt so much that I hoped a stranger would get from the book."
She said she wrote the book with a target audience of girls in high school but has since learned it has been read by a much larger demographic. Read More...
